Seeking perfect shrimp larvae … in Pahrump (Nevada)?

Seeking perfect shrimp larvae … in Pahrump (Nevada)?

Most residents probably think the only way to get shrimp in the desert is to head to a restaurant or a grocery store, and truly fresh shrimp simply isn’t an option in a landlocked state.

But thanks to Ganix Bio-Technologies Inc., the best place to get fresh shrimp will soon be Pahrump, where the “aquaculture” firm has chosen to build its newest indoor shrimp farm.

The knee-jerk reaction is quick in coming to mind: Fresh shrimp in the desert? How is that possible?

That’s the question Beau Dempsey, senior scientist and director of operations, answered during a presentation to the large group of business owners and residents who packed into the town annex for the Pahrump Alliance Valley Economic Development meeting Tuesday.

The company grows organically-grown shrimp, meaning all the factors during the shrimp’s growth are controlled.

“A wild-caught shrimp you would think would be an organic shrimp, but that’s not the case because you can’t control any of the factors,” Dempsey explained. “We’re at an indoor facility, we can control 100 percent of the factors in that facility … creating a truly organic product.”

And it doesn’t even require a lot of water.

“We fill our facility one time, and that’s it,” Dempsey explained. “We do not discharge one drop of water.”

The company achieves this by maintaining a constantly sterile environment, controlling nutrient levels in the water (since shrimp deplete the nutrients, after a harvest the levels must be restored).

This is accomplished with a bio-filtration process that cycles the nutrients. It is Ganix’s intellectual property.

“That is the one limiting factor of all aquaculture, is nutrient overload,” Dempsey explained. “Water treatment, golf ponds, anything you can think of, have a nutrient overload issue. And that’s when you get pea soup or a smell or whatever.

“When you can handle your nutrient overload in a system, you don’t need to discharge your water, and that’s what we do.”

All of this means the company can have farms anywhere in the country regardless of the weather and can farm shrimp all year around.